AI interviews enable a real, human view of your brand – at scale
By Joe Razza, Chief Product Officer, YouGov
When people talk about AI in market research, the conversation usually starts with the technology – models, automation, speed, scale. It's all impressive. But I think it's the wrong place to start.
Instead, I think about the Apollo missions. Incredible sums were invested in brand new technologies such as rockets, computers and navigation systems. Arguably the most significant outcome wasn't the technology itself. It was that astronauts looking back from the moon saw Earth and its people on a scale and from a perspective never seen before.
AI's role in research should be thought about in the same way. The technology is the means to the end, not the end itself. The real breakthrough is that it enables us to get new, meaningful perspectives on people, communities and society – bigger in scale and richer in detail. If AI doesn't help us comprehend real humans more deeply, then we're simply building bigger rockets to go nowhere.
It's with this in mind that we've developed a new approach to brand tracking: YouGov BrandIndex Voices uses AI to listen to real people in a personal way at mass scale so we can fully understand what they're really telling us about brands.
Putting the "why" back into brand tracking
Brand tracking today excels at showing what is happening. Metrics move, impressions shift, buzz spikes. What's been missing is why those changes happen. BrandIndex Voices solves this.
It layers large-scale, structured conversations with real people onto continuous BrandIndex metrics, revealing the underlying reasons behind shifts in brand perception. For existing BrandIndex users, it adds essential context to familiar measures. For teams relying on fragmented qualitative methods, it replaces partial, disconnected views with a unified way to understand consumers.
Traditional qualitative research uncovers the why slowly, manually and often expensively. When time is of the essence, the data required to make the best decisions isn't ready. Instead, teams are left piecing together explanations from reviews, social listening and ad hoc surveys, hoping the story holds together.
Amplifying real people's voices
BrandIndex Voices removes this friction by engaging real people in exploratory conversations, delivering qualitative richness at quantitative scale. It holds detailed, AI-enabled conversations with thousands of people that feel like a more natural way to express opinions and feelings than survey questions.
An opening question sets direction, but the interaction adapts dynamically, allowing respondents to go deeper in their own words. It goes beyond surface opinions to find out the narratives, hesitations and emotional nuance that truly shape brand perceptions – turning abstract metrics into indicators of real human experience.
Hundreds of these responses are analyzed, with AI grouping them into scored themes, identifying shared narratives and tracking sentiment as it emerges. You hear individual voices and understand personal reasoning, while also seeing collective patterns take shape across large audiences.
Voices in action: Samsung
We recently spoke to consumers with a positive impression of Samsung to understand out why they felt this way. Voices not only summarizes hundreds of conversations but also breaks down major themes and provides key quotes.
AI interviewer summary
Samsung has built deep trust through long-lasting, seamlessly connected products that reliably impress in everyday use, especially among older consumers. But rising prices, constant comparison to Apple’s aspirational pull, and durability that limits repeat purchases leave the brand feeling safe and functional rather than emotionally compelling – strong at keeping loyalists, weaker at attracting new ones.
Key themes
Reliability and longevity
- 16% voice share
- 9/10 sentiment (measuring the overall emotional tone expressed toward a topic)
- 7/10 engagement (measuring how “interested” or “involved” participants are with a topic)
TV and home entertainment
- 15% voice share
- 8/10 sentiment
- 8/10 engagement
Ease of everyday use and hardware design
- 14% voice share
- 8/10 sentiment
- 7/10 engagement
In their own words
“I own several Samsung products and recently purchased a Samsung dishwasher. I have been very pleased with all Samsung products so far, but the dishwasher exceeded all my expectations. I have had a multitude of different branded dishwashers, and they all eventually disappointed me. My new Samsung is totally amazing in how effectively it always super cleans my dishes.”
– Male, 55+
We don't use AI to replace the human voice – we use it to amplify it, removing the structural limits that have historically constrained qualitative research. In doing so, we're helping brands to finally capture, connect and understand the why behind their metrics in a way that hasn't been possible previously.
The foundation must be authentic voices
As AI becomes more powerful, one thing remains constant: real human insights can only come from real people. Synthetic panels – aggregated best guesses rather than authentic perspectives – cannot deliver them.
Voices is built on YouGov's proprietary panel – consistently recruited, verified and engaged real people, not rented samples. High engagement means people actually participate in meaningful ways. An owned panel means we know who we're talking to, and we can ensure integrity at every step.
Technology's role is in service of human understanding – AI enables voices to be heard and helps identify narratives that emerge across different conversations. People provide insights – everything else is infrastructure.
Why authentic voices matter
Many voice-of-the-consumer programs unintentionally amplify extremes – capturing heated in-the-moment customer reactions. However, these signals are valuable but incomplete. Brands are shaped as much (if not more) by the quiet majority, but this group is often not included – their voices remaining silent and leaving critical gaps.
BrandIndex Voices uncovers the full reality. By engaging our vast, verified panel, it brings customers, non-users and competitors' customers into one framework, creating an accurate, balanced picture of how brands exist in people's minds.
At scale, diverse individual voices resolve into clear narratives. Technology makes it possible to access that volume, analyze it efficiently and reveal the whole picture rather than isolated fragments.
The value becomes apparent when brand metrics move. When impression, reputation or buzz shifts, Voices shows what changed and why – grounded in real consumer language. For campaign measurement, asking people where they encountered marketing links metric movement to specific channels and creative.
Combined, real people, exploratory conversations, speed and scale deliver what brand tracking has never fully provided: a holistic, human view of your brand.
Ready for your Apollo moment?
YouGov BrandIndex Voices goes beyond brand tracking, helping you fully understand why your consumers think, act and feel as they do. It gives you that Apollo moment: a new vantage point that reveals what was always there but never fully visible.
Ready to start a conversation with us to hear your consumers' voices? Learn more about YouGov BrandIndex Voices here.
About the author
Joe Razza is the chief product officer at YouGov, a global research data and analytics group offering unparalleled insight into what the world really thinks and does.